Turning Chapter 1323

“Again? We already declared the evidence review was finished....”

The judge, face haggard, sighed as he asked,

“Which side did this item come from this time?”

Without meaning to, Kiole looked at Kachian. The Crown Prince seemed to know nothing, asking something of his advisor.

“From neither side. We received word that it was found by the knights dispatched by His Majesty the Emperor, who judged it to be very closely related to this accusation and sent it here.”

“......”

Right. The Emperor had taken this case seriously and had proclaimed that he would re-investigate both the death of the herbalist Maiki—of which Crown Prince Kachian was suspected—and the death of Second Prince Lenore Shan Apeto. But since then there had been no news of anything new discovered, and the affairs swirling around Kiole himself had been so overwhelming that he had all but forgotten that fact.

Today, the Crown Prince asserted that all physical and circumstantial evidence that had made him a suspect was the fault of the dead Sage and the forces behind him, and that the past Marin claimed was a lie. Would the item that had just arrived truly have the power to overturn that claim?

Under everyone’s gaze, the investigator opened the box.

There were two items inside.

One was a letter from the knights who had sent it, and the other was...

'...What is that? That filthy sack?'

It was a worn-out sack, covered in black stains.

The moment it was revealed, a fishy, musty stench spread through the inquiry room in an instant. That sack was apparently the source of the faint reek that had been wafting about since earlier.

'Ugh....'

The judge, the investigators, and Crown Prince Kachian all simultaneously covered their noses with their sleeves. A few with weaker stomachs retched.

“Uurk!”

Kiole’s stomach wasn’t great either, but to his surprise, he found it bearable and didn’t make a fuss. After his grueling time at penal labor, his tolerance was incomparably stronger than before. Marin and Kishiar also showed little reaction, as if this much was nothing to endure.

“What’s inside it? How can it reek like this...! Quickly, check the contents!”

An investigator in gloves reached into the sack. The stench grew even stronger. What he pulled out was a mass of mushrooms, dried, shriveled, and rotting.

'What is that?'

As Kiole wondered, the investigator put the sack back into the box and opened the letter. He began to read its contents slowly.

“This is the report from the knights who found and sent this. The item just now is not trash, but a Dudulem mushroom. It was not freshly picked but cut, dried, and refined; the black stains on the sack... have been identified as blood.”

'Wha...t?'

The inquiry room sank colder and more frigid than it had at any point so far.

Even Kiole didn’t dare take a deep breath.

Anyone who knew what had happened in the Chamber of Truth could instantly grasp what this meant.

What had Marin said before the Emperor and Empress then?

“-The plant Maiki harvested last, dried before he died—that was that very mushroom.”

Maiki, who died horribly while harvesting Dudulem mushrooms.

Second Prince Lenore Shan Apeto, murdered around a similar time by a method that used Dudulem mushrooms.

Marin had claimed that method was first discovered by Maiki, and that Kachian—who had grown up like a commoner in that village—had learned it from Maiki and knew it as well. The Emperor had acknowledged that the doubts and circumstances she raised all had merit, but he could not accept her claim outright. There had been no physical evidence to support it.

But now.

In the renewed inquiry, a blood-stained sack of Dudulem mushrooms had finally been found. By the place of discovery, its refined state, and the amount of blood on it, it was clearly connected to the deceased Maiki.

Kiole rolled his eyes the slightest bit to glance at Kachian.

His lips had been raised in a smile of disbelief—and then froze hard. It was as if he didn’t understand what he had just heard.

But as time passed and nothing changed, the boy Crown Prince’s face slowly lost its smile. Each time he closed and opened his eyes, his eyes and mouth twisted further, until at last rough breaths burst from him.

The advisor tried to say something, but Kachian’s gaze was fixed only on the blood-stained sack. His eyes, thrown wide, trembled as if he wanted to rip the sack to pieces that instant—or else flee from it in fear.

Perhaps it was because he had been smiling all day. The new change of expression on the Crown Prince’s face felt strangely unfamiliar and grotesque.

And only then did Kiole recall something Kishiar had murmured right before they entered this place.

-If you want to make your opponent fall, keep making him laugh.

Just as the words said, Kachian had kept smiling today. It had seemed natural, as if everything were turning in his favor.

But what if that hadn’t been natural at all?

Kiole turned his gaze toward Kishiar. Even he, who had been shamelessly tossing off jests throughout the inquiry, was not smiling now. Unlike Kachian’s face, wrecked and twisted from shock, his expression was cool, unreadable, and so calm that it sent a chill through him.

Kiole knew someone who often wore that look.

It was Yuder Aile.

Breaking the shocked silence, the judge opened his mouth.

“Accuser Marin.”

“Yes.”

“Does that sack of Dudulem mushrooms look like it belonged to Maiki?”

Marin looked as if she had waited her whole life to hear that question. Clenching her fists tight, she stared straight at Kachian and spoke.

“Yes. That is undoubtedly my brother’s.”

“Can you explain how you arrived at that conclusion?”

“Dudulem mushrooms bring in almost no money even when sold. Across the entire Empire, the only herbalist who would harvest that worthless thing so diligently, dry it going back and forth between shade and sun, cut it uniformly, and carry that much of it around—would have been Maiki.”

“Why do you think he had reason to carry such mushrooms right up until the moment of his death?”

“Maiki met a stranger from outside the region several times then. From that time on, he kept harvesting Dudulem mushrooms. People in the village witnessed this and know it to be true. I infer that they repeatedly demanded mushrooms from Maiki... and after achieving their aim, killed him at the end to silence him and left.”

Moisture shone in her wide eyes, but did not fall.

“By nature timid, he never dealt outside his usual buyers, but at that time, for some reason, he kept meeting someone he barely knew. I couldn’t understand why. But thinking back later, something clicked.”

“What was it?”

“Shortly before he died, Maiki said he thought he might get to see a friend he hadn’t seen in a long time. If the outsider Maiki met was actually connected to that ‘friend,’ and if that ‘friend’ was the true client who wanted refined Dudulem mushrooms, then everything is understandable.”

Kachian’s complexion grew paler and paler. Without looking at his face, Marin pressed out each word with force.

“My brother was not, by any means, mauled to death by a beast. I also believe the claim that the man called the Sage may have been the true culprit who killed my brother does not make sense. That blood-stained sack will prove what I say!”

“......”

Originally, the next step was to ask the witnesses a few questions to prepare for trial. But the consecutive appearance of new evidence had scared the wits out of the judge and investigators, and that process did not proceed properly.

After quite a long deliberation, the judge announced that the late-arriving evidence would all be admitted.

“New evidence has appeared to support both sides’ claims, but at present neither side can be judged rashly. On the date of the formal trial, before the seven High Justices, we will let the remaining truth be decided.”

The inquiry ended. Kiole sat there blankly, stupefied, then was the last to leave the inquiry room.

No—he tried to leave.

“Kiole la Diarca.”

Kachian approached and called to him.

“Let’s speak for a moment.”

Before they knew it, the room was empty save for the two of them.

“...Why should I?”

“I didn’t expect I’d have to remind you here that I know your most shameful secret.”

My most shameful secret? For a moment, the shocking secrets he had learned in his father’s hidden vault flashed through Kiole’s mind, but that wasn’t it.

“Do you still enjoy secretly rolling around with men in the middle of palace parties?”

Kiole realized that Crown Prince Kachian still mistakenly thought him a man who lay with men, and a stunned feeling came over him.